The Best Free Antivirus Software for 2025
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In an early set of PCMag antivirus reviews from 1988 , prices ranged from $10 shareware to $189. A roundup of two dozen antivirus packages in 1993 revealed an average price of $90. But fear not, antivirus wasn't reserved only for the rich. Free antivirus scans online appeared along with the budding internet, and some companies offered antivirus protection for free . I've been covering antivirus for more than 30 years, and as new or updated free antivirus apps pop up, I subject them to real-world tests to help you pick one that suits you best. PCMag's current Editors' Choice winners for free antivirus are Avast One Basic and AVG AntiVirus Free, but they aren't the only services worth considering. Read on for details about the best free antivirus apps I've tested, and give them a try on your PC or Mac—after all, they're free!
Free Antivirus vs. Paid Antivirus
If free antivirus tools are so good at protecting internet security, why should anybody pay? For one thing, many of these are free only for noncommercial use. If you have a business or lots of computers to protect, you need to pony up for the paid edition. You should probably consider upgrading to a full security suite at that point. After all, it's your business's security on the line.
Even for personal use, most paid antivirus tools offer more than their free counterparts—sometimes a lot more. For example, ZoneAlarm's paid edition protects against malicious and fraudulent websites, which the free version does not. And Panda reserves quite a few features for paying customers, among them firewall protection, application control, cross-platform support, and detection of insecure Wi-Fi connections.
In addition, many companies don't offer full-scale tech support for users of their free editions. The first time you need extra help digging a particularly stubborn malware out of your system, you might regret the lack of support.
Which Free Anitvirus Has the Best Lab Scores?
Around the world, researchers at independent antivirus testing labs spend their days putting antivirus tools to the test. Some of these labs regularly release public reports on their findings. We follow Windows antivirus test results from four such labs closely: AV-Comparatives , MRG-Effitas , SE Labs , and AV-Test Institute . AV-Test and AV-Comparatives also test Mac-specific antivirus apps.
Security companies typically pay for the privilege of being included in testing. In return, the labs supply detailed reports that can help improve their antiviruses. The number of labs that include a particular vendor is a measure of significance. In each case, the lab considered the program important enough to test, and the vendor felt the price was worthwhile. The labs don't necessarily test a vendor's free edition, but most vendors pack full protection into the free offering, enhancing premium versions with additional features.
The Best Free Malware Protection
In addition to carefully perusing results from the independent labs, we also run our own hands-on malware protection test. We expose each antivirus to a collection of malware samples, including a variety of different malware types, and note its reaction. Typically, the antivirus will wipe out most of the samples on sight and detect some of the remaining ones when we try to launch them. Based on how thoroughly the antivirus protects the test system from these samples, we derive a malware-blocking score from 0 to 10 points.
Since we use the same samples month after month, the malware-blocking test doesn't measure an antivirus tool's ability to detect brand-new threats. In a separate test, we attempt to download malware from 100 very new malicious URLs supplied by London-based testing lab MRG-Effitas, typically less than a few days old. We note whether the antivirus blocked all access to the URL, wiped out the malicious payload during download, or did nothing.
If you're interested in learning more about our testing techniques, you're welcome to read more about how we test security software .
What Else Can Free Antivirus Do?
Almost every antivirus scans files on access to ensure malware can't launch, and it also scans the entire system on demand or on a schedule you set. Once cleaning and scheduling are done, blocking all access to malware-hosting URLs is another good way to avoid trouble. Many extend that protection to steer users away from fraudulent websites and phishing sites that try to steal login credentials for financial sites and other sensitive sites. A few rate links in search results, flagging any dangerous or iffy ones.
Behavior-based detection, a feature of some antiviruses, is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can detect viruses never seen before. On the other hand, if it's not done right, it can baffle the user with messages about perfectly legitimate programs.
Any antivirus should eliminate spyware and other types of malware, but some include features designed specifically for spyware protection . Features like encryption to protect your sensitive data and webcam control to prevent remote peeping appear in commercial editions, not free ones. However, some free editions include features like a simple on-screen keyboard to foil keyloggers.
Installing all security updates for Windows, your web browsers, and other popular applications is one easy way to keep your PC protected. Windows 11 makes it easier than ever to stay up to date, but there are plenty of security holes in older Windows versions, in popular apps, and in add-ons. Scanning for vulnerabilities in the form of missing updates is a feature most often found in commercial antivirus tools, but it does turn up in some free ones. In the list below, you can see which programs include these useful features.
Editors' Note: Given that the US government has banned new sales of Kaspersky security products, we no longer recommend them.
